Winter storm alerts stretch from northern Georgia through Maine as the system moves through on Sunday.
While this system won’t be the record breaking nor’easter that dumped 18-36 inches across the regions last week, it will still pack a punch for some locations.
One interesting possibility to note is that Boston may end up getting more than three times what they picked up from the previous nor’easter. As of now, the forecast calls for 3-6 inches for the city on Sunday, far more than the 1.2 inches the city received during the last storm.
How much snow is uncertain
There is still some uncertainty about exactly how much snow the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic will get with this system.
“The factors that could limit snowfall with this system is how fast the storm tracks up the coast, and also how close to the coast the storm tracks,” says CNN meteorologist Haley Brink.
“If the system tracks farther off the coast, the heaviest precipitation will be over the Atlantic. If the storm hugs the coast, the heaviest snow bands could directly impact several cities up the I-95 corridor.”
Speed is an important factor with this storm compared to the previous one on Monday.
“If this coastal low tracks quickly up the coast, this will limit the amount of time snow has to accumulate,” Brink said.
For most of New Jersey, Connecticut, and eastern New York, the snow will begin Sunday around sunrise and end around sunset. The storm is forecast to drop 6-10 inches in that period of time, which is several inches less than the previous storm.
For the Mid-Atlantic and southern Appalachian regions, the main concern is the freezing mark. These regions will experience rain and snow mixed together, so even a slight variation of temperature will alter how much snowfall accumulations are seen from northern Georgia up through Washington, DC.
Gusty winds combined with the heavy snowfall will reduce visibility in many of these locations.
Other impacts from this storm will include dangerous driving conditions as well as power outages.
The snow is here to stay
The coldest air of the season is set to move in across much of the lower 48 states in the coming days.
More than 40 million people across the contiguous US are forecast to see temperatures below zero over the next seven days. The coldest temperatures will be in the central US with the weather service predicting bitterly cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest this weekend.
From Sunday through Thursday, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Detroit will see high temperatures 15 to 20 degrees below normal, keeping them below freezing for almost a full week.
Much of the Great Lakes region and interior New England will remain below freezing for much of the upcoming week as well. This means whatever snow falls on Sunday is likely to stay there.
“Expect hazardous travel conditions on Sunday with re-freezing of snow and ice on untreated roads and surfaces Monday morning,” according to the Weather Prediction Center.
